1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an integrated digital device functioning as different digital devices in different modes. More particularly, the present invention relates to an integrated digital device functioning as different digital devices such as a digital camera, a digital camcorder, a digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) receiver, and an MPEG layer 3 (MP3) player in different modes.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, a plurality of independently functioning digital devices have been integrated into single devices, which has enabled an integrated digital device comprising a digital camera, a digital camcorder, a DMB receive, and an MP3 player, among others to be combined into one device. To control many functions of different digital devices, a plurality of functions allowing a user to set different types of necessary information should be provided. To allow the user to quickly change setup information, a plurality of input devices such as buttons may be provided. However, input devices which use multiple buttons to input setup information for the functions prevent a user from easily using a digital device. To overcome this problem, a structure in which a menu screen allowing a user to select and execute a preferred process according to a combination of a selection button and a decision button is displayed on a display device such as a liquid crystal display (LCD) is used. However, an operation required to execute the preferred process is a complicated, time-consuming process.
Also, when a selected menu item moves up and down or to the left and right over main menu items in a state in which main menu items are fixed in a main menu area, sub menu items of the selected main menu item also shift up and down or to the left and right. Therefore, the structure of a screen is complicated. In particular, when a user moves the highlight fast over the main menu items for a quick search, sub menu items belonging to a selected main menu item also quickly move. This causes a visual inconvenience to a user.
Moreover, when a user enters an input command using an input. key button on a screen displaying icons indicating a plurality of setup information items and icons and characters indicating state information of the screen in a shooting mode or a playback mode, all of the icons and the characters are removed from the screen and only an object is displayed on the screen. In this state, when the user operates the same input key button on the screen displaying the object, a backlight of the screen is turned off so that even the object is not shown. In this case, since all of the icons serving as hot keys disappear in response to the user's single input command, the user cannot know information necessary for shooting or playback.
In an integrated digital device, a user can search for a preferred multimedia content using thumbnails corresponding to multimedia contents. However, the number of thumbnails that can be displayed on a screen at one time is limited and a search using a conventional method takes a large amount of time when a large number of multimedia contents are stored.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved system and method to eliminate limitations on the number of thumbnails that can be displayed and to decrease the amount of time required to search when a large number of multimedia contents are stored.